Skip Kennon
Skip Kennon (also known as Walter Edgar Kennon) was born in Savannah, Georgia, and grew up mostly in Redondo Beach, California. In 2005, the Redondo Union High School (on the occasion of the school's 100th birthday) named Kennon as one of their 100 most distinguished alumni, and he accepted the honor along with such luminaries as opera singer Carol Neblett and comedians Tom and Dick Smothers.
In addition to his film and video credits, Kennon works mostly in musical theater, with a substantial body of work as a composer, lyricist, musician and teacher. He moderated the first year of the award-winning BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop for twenty years (overseeing the whole program for ten of those years) and taught at the world famous Neighborhood Playhouse for ten years. His students have included such notable writers as Tony winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Once On This Island, Seussical), and Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez (Avenue Q).
As to his own theater writing, Kennon wrote the music for the one-man musical Herringbone (Playwrights Horizons - starring David Rounds, Hartford Stage - starring Joel Grey, Edinburgh Festival, Philadelphia's Prince Music Theater, Chicago's St. Nicholas Theater, 2007 season opener at Williamstown Theater Festival - starring B.D. Wong), the music for Here's Our Girl (workshopped at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater), and the music and lyrics for the musical version of The Last Starfighter (Storm Theatre, Village Theatre Festival of New Musicals - summer 2006, New York Musical Theatre Festival readings - fall 2006), Blanco (Goodspeed Opera House at Chester, National Alliance for Musical Theatre, National Music Theater Network), Feathertop (WPA Theater, Pennsylvania Stage Co.), and Time and Again (Manhattan Theatre Club, San Diego's Old Globe Theater, Eugene O'Neill Center National Music Theater Conference). Kennon also wrote the music and lyrics for the one-act musical Plaisir d'Amour (book by Terrence McNally), which was produced at New York's Triangle Theater and seen in workshop at Circle Rep, as well as the music for the one-act musical Afternoon Tea (book & lyrics by Eduardo Machado), which was performed at Theater Row Theaters in 2005 by Ed Harris and Amy Madigan.
He was classical music critic at the Hollywood Reporter for five years. Kennon is currently based in Manhattan in New York City.
He and Ellen met during his service as moderator at the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. Friendship, and then work together, followed, including their collaboration on “Tangled Webs,” included in the Shows section of this website.